Fred Smoot's Media Boycott

I've tried not to mix Sean Taylor with humor, and I hope this doesn't go down that path, but I wanted to mention that Fred Smoot told me and a few others last week that he would temporarily not be talking to the media because of his frustration over the coverage of Taylor's death. As previously mentioned, I share some of his concerns, and while I see no reason to use the words of a few against the whole group, I think his goal has a certain nobility.

"I ain't in the mood," he said last week, after he had declined several interview requests and spent most of an open-locker room period sitting stone-faced near the showers. "I ain't been, right, period when it comes to talking since my boy passed and how that was handled. I just ain't felt up to it. I just didn't feel like that was handled right, and I don't never have no bad relations with the media. I'm just gonna keep it that way."

Here's where the mild humor value enters: try as he might, Smoot is incapable of carrying out a media boycott. He just can't do it, as will become evident throughout Minnesota week. He will stare you in the face and tell you he isn't talking, and then he will proceed to accidentally conduct a 20-minute interview. Last week, for instance, he told me he wasn't up to talking about his energy bar or anything else, right before we had a long conversation about said energy bar. And I heard him on the radio last week discussing the Giants game.

"Radio seems to be on the even keel," he explained to me later. "The TV is really opinionated."

Radio? Even keel? Someone tell Czaban. Anyhow, attempting to respect the boycott, I was content to stand next to Smoot's locker after the Giants game and just record the lines he was screaming to his teammates.

"I came to the sidelines saying, 'Did he run me over?' " Smoot was screaming to his his secondary mates about the hit he took from Brandon Jacobs. "I didn't know what happened."

Or the conversation that ensued when a writer from Extreme Skins asked about Smack.

"Yeah they're pretty good," Smoot said, offering a bar to the writer. "I took one before the game today. I had a pretty good day off the Smoot Smack bar."

"Man, don't listen to Blue, he hating cuz they coming out with the dark chocolate bar," Smoot said. "Man, stop lying," Smoot said as Springs continued to insult the bars. "Man, I ate a blue-black Shawn Springs bar with dark chocolate, with anti-oxidants in it."

Etc.

But then the serious media descended, and according to my notes, asked Smoot at least 10 questions. Smoot tried not to answer--among his responses were "Whoever," "It is what it is," "I ain't gonna make it no bigger deal," and "We just played, man. The D-line did a good job, we made some plays out there. You know, that's about it." But a media boycott it wasn't, and he even dropped a decent quote at the end, about the second half.

"That's been our weakness all year, we haven't been able to put the dog down," he said, "and I think that's what we stressed at halftime and that's what happened."

Dan - Please change the picture of Fred to a current one in deference to Sean Taylor. We love our Freddie and feel the same way that he does about the no-class media losers that chose the low road, displaying to the world their true lack of character and poor upbringing. One wonders if even their families still like them. I noticed none of the cowards said any of that crap in front of his teammates. You say that Smoot has been informed that the boycott had better not last very long. Oh, yeah? Or what? Did you say that to his face? I doubt it. Hope YOU took some Smoot Smack Bars! I'd give up my Dallas seats to see that! My money's on Fred - always will be.